[tony-johnston]

Hi,
new to the forums been surfing around a while but now have a question.

Heres my specs:
Dual 1Gig Powermac G4
2mb L3 cache per processor
1.5 gb Sd ram
64mb G4 MX

Im a film student. So I do ALOT of crazy video editing using final cut HD. I am so confused about the video cards on the market today (usually im pretty good with technology but I am having a hard time deciding) But anyways, I need a FAST card as I am tired of waiting while its rendering. Any good reccomendations?

[mduell]

The Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition (don't waste your money on the Special Edition).

[tooki]

Final Cut doesn't render on the graphics card, so upgrading it won't make any big difference.

tooki

[tony-johnston]

What do I need to upgrade then?

[tony-johnston]

Originally Posted by tony-johnston

What do I need to upgrade then?

It upgrades the v-ram and final cut uses that right.

[iMacfan]

What you really need is more processing power, so either you upgrade the processors, which could be extremely expensive, get a G5 tower (yeah, like you'd be asking this question if that was an option.) OR, possibly there is a way of linking up to another mac over a network to rope that in on the rendering (don't know if that can be done). That way, you could get the fastest box with a decent amount of ram, and not bother about other features.

David.

[tooki]

No, Final Cut does not really care about extra VRAM as far as I know.

Rendering in Final Cut is done on the CPU, or on a video accelerator card (NOT graphics card) such as the Kona series.

Here it's important to make the distinction between a video card and a graphics card. Most users have gotten into the bad habit of using the terms interchangeably, but here it matters:

Graphics card: the device a computer uses to generate visual output onto a computer display -- these are part of the computer's desktop. (Many cards have output to TV as well, but it is considered a computer screen since it's part of the desktop.) These cards are driven by the OS, but can be commandeered by an application for special purposes (e.g. gaming or special acceleration, like Motion).

Video card: a card used to capture, manipulate, and/or output TV material. A connected video monitor is not part of the computer's desktop. These cards are driven by a video editing application.

Many video cards (like the aforementioned Kona series) have rendering acceleration for video applications. But some programs (well, one at the moment: Apple's Motion) can use a graphics card for rendering.

At the moment, Final Cut Pro uses only video card acceleration, but not graphics card acceleration.

tooki

[tony-johnston]

Ok, I have always seen those before but never really understood the defenition. Any good Video cards you can reccomend? I need one soon, Im logging and capturing around 4-5 hours of footage a week. Real-time editing support would be awesome. Any good ones you can reccomend for around $300-400?

[tooki]

The only ones at the moment are the Kona cards I linked above. Only the two higher models offer this. You're looking at $1600 and up for a Kona that can accelerate.

Have you looked at Apple's Motion application? It's more compositing than editing, but if you can work it into your workflow (and buy the most powerful graphics card you can get your hands on) it might be a good solution.

If you wanna stick in Final Cut Pro, you might be better off just upgrading to a Power Mac G5.

tooki

[tony-johnston]

There has got to be a cheaper solution. My comp is fast enough processor wise to handle final cut.

[tony-johnston]

what about something like this http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation